Police impounded the billboard and arrested the driver of the vehicle towing it. He may be charged with inciting prostitution and the website owners and managers will be summoned for questioning, legal sources said.

Photographs of the advertisement posted on social networks on Wednesday sparked widespread outrage.

The mayor’s office alerted prosecutors calling for the website to be banned.

Hélène Bidard, a deputy mayor, said: “As well as public order problems caused by an advertisement that can be seen by minors, this site is an offence against women. Behind these glamorised images, there are young people who could fall into prostitution.”

As well as public order problems caused by an advertisement that can be seen by minors, this site is an offence against women. Behind these glamorised images, there are young people who could fall into prostitution

A students’ union said it had lodged a police complaint for pimping.

The Norwegian-based website also ran into trouble in Brussels last month. The Belgian authorities seized posters and launched a prostitution inquiry.

Sigurd Vedal, the head of the site, said: “It’s a classic misunderstanding. We are like a normal dating site, but financial is part of the checklist.” The Paris authorities are also concerned about the practice of landlords offering accommodation in return for sex.

An investigation in 2008 revealed that students had been lured into accepting such pacts because of a scarcity of student housing and high rents. The government then promised measures to address the problem.

However, this summer a female student from Edinburgh shamed a Paris landlord on Twitter by posting messages in which he offered her a free place to stay if she let him “lick her feet”. Claiming he was “not looking for sex”, he said he would wear a chastity belt and give her the key.